


Clones and Kings

by Headfulloffantasies



Series: Clones and Kings [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Jakku, Mando shoots first, Mistaken Identity, Post-Season/Series 02, Rex Lives, The Darksaber, Yoda - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28965081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Headfulloffantasies/pseuds/Headfulloffantasies
Summary: Ahsoka’s message to Rex was frustratingly vague. “Watch the Mandalorian and his foundling.”What exactly did that entail, oh mighty Commander? But no, Ahsoka was so entrenched in her shadowy schemes she refused to say anything else. Just go to Jakku and watch the Mandalorian.
Series: Clones and Kings [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2168337
Comments: 19
Kudos: 202





	Clones and Kings

Ahsoka’s message to Rex was frustratingly vague. “Watch the Mandalorian and his foundling.” 

What exactly did that entail, oh mighty Commander? But no, Ahsoka was so entrenched in her shadowy schemes she refused to say anything else. Just go to Jakku and watch the Mandalorian. Rex wanted to call her back and remind Ahsoka that he wasn’t a soldier anymore. But he knew she’d already switched frequencies and wouldn’t answer.

Jakku somehow managed to be more of a backend planet than Tatooine. Rex asked around about the Mandalorian when he landed, but no one would tell him anything without a bribe. Rex didn’t have the credits to spare. It was fine. He was an ex-commander in the Republic army. He could track down one Mandalorian.  


It took eight hours for Rex to become sick of this whole dustbowl planet. It reminded him unfairly of the Dune Sea on Tatooine. Nothing but sand. Nothing but sun. At least there was only one sun. Rex couldn’t imagine what a Mandalorian wanted on a stupid planet like Jakku. Nobody came to Jakku unless they had nowhere else to go.

Rex spotted a glint of sun on metal sometime after the sun passed its apex. He lifted his binocs. A single figure in shining armour plodded through the dunes. Rex picked up his pace. 

Rex realised just as he reached rifle range that Ahsoka hadn’t indicated whether the Mando was hostile or friendly. Rex had assumed friendly based on the fact that Ahsoka hadn’t asked him to eliminate the Mandalorian. Rex deliberated as the Mando passed behind an outcropping of rock. Rex decided to proceed with caution. He hustled to catch up before he lost the Mando.

Rex rounded the rock and almost lost his head. A pulse rifle blast exploded over his left shoulder, raining rock shards over Rex’s head. He dove behind the nearest boulder. Rex risked poking his head around the boulder for a look.

The Mandalorian crouched behind another rock with the pulse rifle aimed at Rex. Rex ducked back. He took stock of his own weapons. A pistol blaster and a single grenade on his belt. Not great odds against a Mandalorian, but Rex figured he’d faced worse.

“Who are you?” Mando yelled. “Why are you following me?”

“Ahsoka Tano sent me to check on you,” Rex explained. He waited. He didn’t hear the rifle disengage. 

“Listen,” Rex said. “I’m going to come out without any weapons. Don’t shoot me.”

Rex lifted his empty hands over his head. He said a mumbled prayer to the Maker and stepped out from behind his rock.

The Mandalorian stood with his rifle pointed at Rex’s chest. The Mando seemed to startle. He lowered the weapon.

“Fett?” The Mandalorian asked. 

Rex opened his mouth to say “Do I look like Boba Fett?” Except that he did in fact share a considerable likeness to the infamous bounty hunter. 

He settled for a simple, “No.”

The Mandalorian’s head cocked to one side. It hurt how much Rex could read in the man’s body language. It was just like watching his own vod once their helmets went on for battle. Rex felt attuned to every movement the other man made, watching for the body signals indicating emotion and temperament. It hurt. 

A lifeform wobbled into view at the Mandalorian’s feet. Rex froze.

“Master Yoda?”

The Mando’s helmet tipped towards the tiny Master Yoda. “You’ve seen his species before?”

Rex stuttered past his shock. “Yes. I served under Master Yoda for a time in the Clone Wars.”

The Mando’s whole being radiated frustration and curiosity. “Do you know if there are more of his kind?”

Rex shook his head. “I’ve never seen another.” His eyes remained glued on the tiny Yoda. The child wobbled in a brown robe through the sand, babbling and blinking huge eyes. The Mandalorian holstered his rifle over his shoulder. He bent and picked up Mini Master Yoda. He cradled the baby to his chest. The truth clicked in Rex’s mind. This was the foundling Ahsoka had mentioned. 

Kriffing hells, why hadn’t Ahsoka warned him?

“I have questions,” the Mandalorian said, knocking Rex back to reality.

Rex nodded. “I’ll tell you what I know.”

They set camp to hide from the sun’s harsh rays. They talked until night crept up on them and they made a fire. Well, Rex talked. Mando wanted to know everything. Rex’s connection to Ahsoka, what happened to the clones, why Rex looked like Boba Fett, all of it. Rex answered as best he could while not distracted by the little Yoda.

Rex never once in his whole life wanted to know about Master Yoda’s reproductive cycle. But faced with a smaller, cuter version of the old gremlin, Rex couldn’t help where his mind went. He knew he had never seen a lady Yoda waddling around the Jedi Temple. Maybe Master Yoda reformed like a puddle of jello after his death?  


Until Rex was sure this tiny green bean wasn’t the reincarnated Master Yoda, he was going to show the baby the proper respect. He had no desire to be walloped with a stick once Baby Master Yoda came of age.

The Mandalorian seemed baffled by Rex’s behaviour. He was baffled himself.

“Why the kriff do you have the Master Yoda and not the Jedi?”

“His name is not Yoda,” the Mandalorian explained for the hundredth time. “His name is Grogu.”

“Uh huh,” Rex watched the child chase a frog. It managed an impressive pounce, given how unstable it looked when walking.

“Skywalker is on some mission for the Republic. I’m watching Grogu for now,” the Mandalorian explained.

Rex watched Yoda the Younger swallow the frog whole. His mind short circuited with the empirical evidence that Master Yoda was in fact an apex predator. 

“Why Jakku?” Rex tore his gaze away to refocus on the Mandalorian.

Mando stiffened. “Why does anyone come to Jakku?”

“Two reasons,” Rex poked at the fire. “Bounty hunting and running. So, which is it?”

Mando shrugged. “Bit of both,” he admitted. 

Rex hummed. “What’s a Mandalorian like you got to run from?”

“This,” Mando held out something in his hand. 

Rex could have jumped out of his skin. The silver hilt of a lightsaber lay innocently in Mando’s gloved palm. 

“Whose is it?” Rex swallowed hard. He didn’t want to know the answer.

Mando hummed. “Mine, I suppose.”

“Who before you?” Rex fought the bile rising in the back of his throat. He’d watched so many Jedi die. He couldn’t bear hearing about one more lost.

“Moff Gideon.”

Rex’s head snapped up. Mando’s visor was impenetrable. Rex could read nothing in the darkness. 

“You should give it to the Jedi,” Rex said at last. 

Mando’s laugh barked in the night air. “I tried that. Skywalker won’t take it. He says I have to honour its legacy.”

Rex frowned. He may not have studied the ancient Jedi texts, but he’d spent most of his life with Jedi. He knew a fallen Jedi’s lightsaber was supposed to be entombed in the Jedi temple. Each Jedi’s lightsaber was unique to them. They crafted their own when they were Padawans. Master Kenobi had explained it to Rex once. So why would the young Skywalker not take the lightsaber to dignify the tradition of the Jedi?

Mando held out the saber handle. “Take it. Please.”

Rex took the saber. He held it reverently. It was old. The weathering on the handle had been well maintained, but Rex had enough knowledge of Jedi to note the blackened scorch marks around the rim where the blade heated the metal. He engaged the blade.

Rex dropped the lightsaber with a curse. “What the kriff is wrong with it?” He scrambled backwards in his seat. The black blade swallowed the void of night. It looked like a rift opened in the space between stars. The inverse light messed with Rex’s mind.

Mando reached down and switched it off. He held it out to Rex again. Rex carefully took it. 

“It’s called the Darksaber,” Mando said. “The holder has the right to rule Mandalore.”

Rex startled. “Maybe you shouldn’t give to strangers then,” he tried to pass it to the Mandalorian.

Mando shook his head. “It’s yours now.”

“What the kriff?” Rex spat. “That’s not funny.”

Mando chuckled. “No, it’s not. But I figure since it was passed to me without my knowledge, I have the right to do the same to someone else.”

“Like hell,” Rex scowled. “How’s this for the rightful ruler of Mandalore?”

Rex stood and chucked the Darksaber as hard as he could throw. It bounced off a rock and rolled back to a halt at his feet. 

Master Yoda Jr. cooed with an excited tilt of his head. The kid reached for the Darksaber. Rex experienced a moment of abject terror. Mando swiped the saber out the sand before the baby Jedi could touch it. He clipped the saber to his belt while wagging a finger at the child. “No, we discussed this. Not for you.”

Master Yoda the Second babbled and pinned his ears back in a huff. He was really very cute, Rex thought. Too bad the elder Master Yoda didn’t have the same adorable qualities.

Mando scooped up the little Jedi and bounced him on his knee. 

“So,” Rex leaned back from the fire. “You said you were here for a bounty. Anybody interesting?”

Rex had nearly a decade’s worth of practice to read the wolfish grin hidden by the tilt of Mando’s helmet. 

***

Rex called a few of his rebel contacts and finally got a hold of Ahsoka. 

“You didn’t tell me he was the King of Mandalore,” Rex started when he finally got her smug face on his holo. 

“Where’s the fun in that?” Ahsoka asked. “What do you think of him?”

“He’s kriffing crazy.”

Ahsoka laughed. “And the child?”

“Him too.” Rex paused. “He’s not actually related to Master Yoda, is he?”

“Rex,” Ahsoka’s smile sharpened like a knife. “Are you asking me if Master Yoda ever-?”

Nope. Rex hung up on Ahsoka’s laughing face.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm thinking I might continue this as a collection if anyone is interested


End file.
